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Title: Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for This Urgent Time by Marva J. Dawn, Martin E. Marty ISBN: 0802841023 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: September, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.22
Rating: 5
Summary: A Prophetic Challenge the Church Must Heed
Comment: Marva J. Dawn, a Lutheran theologian at Regent College in Vancouver, throws in her views on the current "worship wars" being waged in churches across America. Taking a firmly traditional stance, though not in an unconditional and close-minded way, she details how churches have become captive to today's therapeutic, TV-addicted, and narcissistic culture. Churches have unthinkingly adopted the standards of the secular culture by singing songs that have more to do with our feelings than God, preaching sermons that are motivational speeches rather than exegeses of the Word, and encouraging church atmospheres which pretend to intimacy but replicate the alienation of our age. Dawn, citing figures as diverse as social critics Neil Postman and Jacques Ellul to theologians Walter Brueggeman and David Wells, shows how American Christianity got that way, and details some positive corrective steps. Worship is about God, and worship should form the character of the Christian, she insists, and anything less than that is unworthy of the Lord.
The book's clarion denunciation of the easygoing, narcissitic "gospel" is a real eye-opener and a prophetic challenge to the contemporary church. Though somewhat repetitive, her points are made clearly and with good support from both Scripture and theological tradition. The passion in her critique stems from what's at stake, which is the very life and death of God's people today. Her case for the traditional liturgy is particularly compelling in how she describes its effect on children and newcomers to the church. Having a set, repeated, and Scripture-rich liturgy following the church calendar will do much more to shape the worshiper's character than most of today's informal services. Dawn is also a classically trained musician and choir director, and it shows in her preference for older church music and especially in the chart presenting the difference between "high" and "pop" culture productions; it is such sections that have led some to accuse her of elitism. The criticism is unwarranted, in my judgment. The issue is not aesthetic taste, but whether the content of both the lyrics and the music are focused on God and will last over time. It's a mistake to think that people will be turned off by substance and depth, and prefer what they hear and see in the outside culture; thoughtful people come to church looking for something different. The church imitates the outside culture at its own peril--the final warning in her book, about the church being its own worst enemy, is a striking warning to churches who think otherwise. They may be, in fact, be captive to "principalities and powers" that guide our broken ways of life, and may be committing slow spiritual suicide in the end. Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down needs to be read by everyone, especially church and worship leaders, concerned with the way they are evangelizing their neighbors. From the Old Testament we learn that the Holy God cares a great deal about the structure and content of our worship, and if the situation is as bad as Dawn thinks it is, we dare not let that state continue for long. Souls are at stake.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great Worship Theology
Comment: This book is an excellent must read for all worship leaders and pastors. It goes beyond style taste and gets in to the theology of worship and how few in the church understand the true issues at stake. By the way this review is being written by a drummer in a contemporary praise band. I am not anti contemporary and neither is the author by the way. However I believe that contemporary worship needs reform. So many lyrics focus on we the worshiper and our promises to God rather than declaring who God is in His magnificent glory and His promises to us. Worship is not first and foremost about reaching out to the unbeliever but, is to be the believers praise and thanksgiving for who God is and what He has done. When we boldly and scripturally worship God unbelievers will be drawn but, that is a by product not the goal. The author unlike a reviewer stated above speaks out against dead traditionalism as well and is not entirely against contemporary worship but, is calling for needed reform. As for the idea that teens in the church will never except older hymns that is not true. Many teens are apparently looking for more substance in worship than their parents are. We need hymns as well as the creeds to root the contemporary church to the historic church.
Rating: 3
Summary: Good food for thought, too much repetition
Comment: While repetition certainly gets the point across about the main purposes of worship, it makes reading this book a challenge. I agree with the author on many points, especially the beauty and depth of hymns, but some of her ideas seem meant to exclude. Yes, God should be the focus of our prayers, offerings, songs, etc. Also, the author writes many times about the danger of tradition becoming stale. However, most of her conclusions point to what already is and there are very few ideas leading to a fresh approach to the next generation. Upon finishing the book, I felt glad for a sure focus for my worship life and for the depth in the Book of Common Prayer, but also felt despair at the lack of meaningful ways to involve those unaccustomed to juggling prayer books and hymnals.
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Title: A Royal "Waste" of Time: The Splendor of Worshiping God and Being Church for the World by Marva J. Dawn ISBN: 080284586X Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: June, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: Planning Blended Worship: The Creative Mixture of Old and New by Robert E. Webber ISBN: 0687032237 Publisher: Abingdon Press Pub. Date: October, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting by Marva J. Dawn ISBN: 0802804578 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: September, 1989 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Blended Worship: Achieving Substance and Relevance in Worship by Robert E. Webber ISBN: 1565632451 Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. Pub. Date: 01 August, 1996 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The New Worship: Straight Talk on Music and the Church by Barry Wayne Liesch, Donald P. Hustad ISBN: 0801063566 Publisher: Baker Book House Pub. Date: 21 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
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